On the first day of the main event, we saw mistakes in draft picks, base races and more!
Alliance vs RNG
The losing brackets started with Alliance vs RNG. Despite the confusion during the ban/pick phase, Alliance used their comfortable heroes: Qojqva wielding Storm Spirit, iNSaNiA wielding Crystal Maiden, and Taiga wielding Dark Willow. RNG took Anti-Mage for Monet, a hero he only played 5 times in the last 6 months.
The game raged until things turned great for the Alliance when they forced Anti-Mage to buyback, in return for the buyback themselves. Alliance was unable to withdraw safely and was re-captured, leading to the former TI3 king’s disqualification. Later in the interview with the losing team, Alliance revealed that he did not intend to pick Gyro. A costly mistake changed the fate of the Alliance completely.
Team Liquid vs Fnatic
The second knockout took place between Team Liquid and Fnatic. Fnatic put their trust in Dj with Enigma. Everything seemed to be going well when he was fnatic’s strongest farm hero, but after a few good blackhole plays, Liquid gradually adjusted and played a split push strategy. This led to expensive blackholes by Fnatic and things slowly changed. The decision to engage after catching an opponent alone made Fnatic pay with the bottom barrack and then the whole game.
Infamous vs Keen Gaming
South America’s last hope, Infamous, faces Keen Gaming. For the first 10 minutes, Keen was the team that controlled the tempo, constantly catching and punishing K1’s greedy Midas Wraith King. However, this tactic didn’t work and Infamous saw the Chinese team off in just 34 minutes – the shortest match of the day. Infamous will now be at least at least 12th place at The International, taking home $672,679 and becoming the first South American team to achieve such a result at The International. That shows that South America fully deserves its own place.
Mineski vs Na`Vi
The last match of the day saw former TI1 king Na`Vi meet Mineski. The series starts after 12 hours of the first game on day one, making the first day of competition really long but the ending is equally compelling.
Na`Vi seemed to have won when they broke the bottom lane and pushed to the T4 tower. However, the team could not keep up with the Ancient, allowing things to slowly spiral out of control. Mineski started warming up his opponent’s highground after an hour, Na`Vi’s back door attempt failed. Although experts believe that Na`Vi is the better team at the end of the game, that did not stop Mineski and the Ukrainian boys from having to carry their suitcases and leave.
TI9 . Main Event
20 to 25 August 2019
- 16 teams compete in double-elimination for 6 days
- 8 teams start in the win bracket, 8 teams in the loser bracket.
- The first round of the losing arm was BO1, they ended up BO5, all the rest were BO3.
Source link: TI9: The four losing brackets went home on the first day of the main tournament
– https://emergenceingames.com/
